Delcotimes.com - Robo-dialers are Disingenuous'
News Article
Delcotimes.com - Robo-dialers are Disingenuous'
Looking to nip in the bud a possible "swiftboating" from conservative lobbying group Freedom's Watch, U.S. Rep. Joseph Sestak, D-7, of Edgmont, addressed a recent "robo-dialer" message aimed at his constituents.
The message, from a "Corporal Mathew Hayden," apparently a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, blasts Congress for passing resolutions honoring Arnold Palmer and Frank Sinatra in May, but taking a Memorial Day break before voting on funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"While Congress is on vacation, funding for the troops is in question. Worse, their paychecks are in jeopardy, too," said the pre-recorded voice, who urged recipients to call their respective representatives and complain about the vote.
Sestak, a former three-star admiral who served 31 years with the Navy, called the message misleading and "disingenuous at best."
Advertisement
"Everyone's permitted to their own opinion, but not their own set of facts," he said. "There's no place in politics for this."
While the House of Representatives did vote against funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the first time in May, 132 House Republicans had a hand in defeating the measure by simply voting "present" in protest of domestic items included in that legislation.
Democrats were quick to capitalize on that with their own robo-dialer targeting prominent Republican House members like Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The Democrat's message, featuring the voice of retired Gen. Wesley Clark, says Republican leadership in the House "voted against expanding the GI bill for the first time since World War II to provide a free college education for veterans. That's leaving our veterans behind."
Democrats and Republicans came to a consensus in the House on the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008 late Thursday.
Sestak, who has held veterans summits, formed a veterans committee, and testified this week on Capitol Hill on the need to secure financial settlements from Iraq for the torture of U.S. POWs during the Gulf War, said in a campaign e-mail: "Being the senior military veteran in Congress; having worn the cloth of this nation' for 31 years; having led young men and women in harm's way; and being the son of a Navy captain who fought in World War II, this type of attack is simply unacceptable."
Sestak faces W. Craig Williams in the November general election. Williams also has an extensive military background as a Marine Corps Reserve weapons sensors officer with Fighter Attack Squadron 121, and was formerly employed as deputy legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among other high-level legal positions in and out of the military.
"It is ironic that when Sestak was the beneficiary of such calls in his first run for Congress, he refused to condemn left-wing 527 groups engaged in these types of robo-calls and mass mailings," said Williams in a statement Friday. "We will see if Joe Sestak has the same passion for shutting down the attacks by Moveon.org and others like them."
Sestak did say neither side should engage in attack ads Thursday, but did not name any specific organization or political action committee.
Source